


If You're Sick Of Being Disrespected

by caimani



Category: Set It Off (Band), Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Blood, Multi, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Rescue Missions, Vampire Hunters, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 16:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17870336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Zach assumed his boyfriends would be back before sunrise. They weren't. He couldn't go outside in the daytime; all he could do was wait and worry.





	If You're Sick Of Being Disrespected

**Author's Note:**

> hell yeah, more vampires! I wrote this fic for the Set It Off Creations Challenge. The theme was Midnight and my prompt was Raise No Fool.

Zach paced back and forth through the house, looking at the clock on the wall every few seconds. Why couldn’t time go by any faster? It was still only six thirty, and sundown wouldn’t be for another hour and a half. 

Almost eighteen hours they’d been gone. Either something had happened or— something had definitely happened. There was no reason they should have been out this long. Not for the first time, he cursed himself for not going out to look for them the previous night, while it was still dark.

He peered out through the heavy curtains covering the window. Still too much light…

“Fuck it,” he said. He grabbed his overcoat and top hat, and fixed his goggles over his eyes. It would keep the worst of the light off him. But even weakened by the light, he still needed to be out there, looking for them.

He locked the door of the town house behind him and made sure the key was in his front pocket before hurrying out onto the cobblestone streets. He kept to the sidewalk, tilting his face down so the brim of his hat would keep the light off. Even so, he had to dodge a few motorcycles belching smoke, steam-powered automobiles driven by lunatics, and riders on horses panicked by the vehicles. Not to mention all the people— some coming home from the day’s work or shopping, and others heading out for the night.

Zach ducked into the first darkened alley he could find and took a moment to regain his strength. It had been a while since he’d been out in so much sunlight, and it was making him dizzy. 

The darkness of the alley was helping, though. Zach closed his eyes and took several steadying breaths. Then he went back out onto the street. 

He went like that for a while, traveling as far as he could before straying into the dark to gather his strength again. It was frustratingly slow going, but it was better than waiting back at the house for night, or for the others to finally come back. 

It was in one of those alleys where he got lucky.

Zach was leaning against the cold wall of some tall building, taking in the energy of the darkness around him, when he heard a muffled noise coming from beyond a nearby door. That by itself wasn’t unusual. 

What was unusual was…

“—vampires like you—”

Zach ran to the door and placed a hand against the wooden surface of it. It was warm. He looked at the walls, but there was nothing to indicate what the building was being used for.

He would be going in blind. But there was no time to waste. He had to hope he would be strong enough to face whatever he found on the other side of the door. 

Zach walked forward, moving through the solid wood of the door. 

Inside, he found himself in a near-empty storage house brightly lit by torches and lamps. A great number of them were surrounding Maxx, who was chained to one of the storage house’s thick wooden pillars. Zach’s heart leapt at seeing him— he looked like he had passed out from the close proximity to all the fire. Just as many torches were surrounding Awsten, who was similarly chained to another pillar. He was also slumped over, but Zach felt relieved seeing it was fire around him and not his true weakness. These people didn’t know what kind of vampire he was.

Cody, however…

Cody was chained to a third pillar, and while there were numerous lamps around him, it looked like he had been doused. With holy water. Fuck. Cody was still fully conscious, glaring into the faces of the five men surrounding him. They were laughing, as Cody pulled fruitlessly at the chains.

Zach quickly looked around him. There was another human sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. He wasn’t looking Zach’s way yet. Good, he still had the element of surprise. Zach walked backwards through the door and hurried around the perimeter of the building. He stopped at the spot where he had seen the human sitting.

He reached through the wall, stuck his head through, and seized the human’s throat. The human put up a struggle right away, and Zach squeezed tightly. He didn’t have enough strength to break the human’s neck— there just wasn’t enough darkness yet— so he slammed the human’s head into the stone wall. 

That did the trick. 

Zach passed through the wall of the building. The other five humans were still too occupied with Cody to even notice their companion was dead.

“It doesn’t matter if you hide yourselves away and pretend to be normal,” one of them was saying. “The Church may have stopped killing you, but that just means folks like us have to take up the burden.”

“Burden of killing vampires that aren’t doing anything,” Cody spat.

“We don’t care,” the human said. “We just hate things like you. Don’t have to get to know an animal before it’s slaughtered.”

Zach looked between Maxx and Awsten. He wanted to free Maxx, to get him away from all that fire draining his strength, but he had to be strategic about this. Awsten was clearly pretending to be weakened by the fire. Holy Blood Vampires like Awsten were rare. They were lucky these humans thought he was just another Shadow Vampire like Maxx, with a weakness to fire.

Zach carefully made his way towards Awsten. There was a lot of fire light in this storage house, but thankfully no sunlight. It would have to be enough.

“You’re having an awful lot of fun torturing us before you do that,” Cody said.

“It’s been a while,” another of the humans said. “Last vampires we found, we killed them too fast. Not satisfying enough. Get ready for a nice long time with us.” 

There was a splashing sound and a cry of pain from Cody. Zach gritted his teeth and looked over at where Cody was trying to shake holy water out of his hair.

Bastards.

“Does it hurt?” one of the humans mocked, before all of them broke out laughing. “Good. It’s only gonna get better.”

Zach reached Awsten’s pillar and found the locks on the chains. Three of them. He would have to be fast. He reached around and gently touched Awsten’s shoulder. Awsten twitched and opened his eyes. He lit up seeing Zach. Zach put a finger to his lips. He pointed at himself and then at Maxx. Then he pointed to Awsten and then to the five men surrounding Cody. 

Awsten nodded. 

“You ever heard of the Blood Crusade?” another of the humans said. “Men chosen by the Pope to kill vampires like you? Other kinds of vampires, sure, but especially your kind. The kind that… tries to get into people’s minds.”

Zach gripped the chain. It didn’t feel as strong as it had looked. This wouldn’t be too hard.

“Bet you wish you could get into our minds now, huh?” the first human said.

“Nah,” Cody said. “Your minds are as disgusting and corrupt as your goddamn souls.”

Zach broke the chain and then ducked behind the pillar. Awsten wrenched himself free of the other chains and set off into a sprint across the storage house. All of the men turned to watch in shock as Awsten came at them, summoning a glittering blood-red sword in his right hand. 

Meanwhile, Zach ran for Maxx. He grabbed at the chains tying Maxx to the pillar and tore through them. Maxx fell forwards, into Zach’s waiting arms.

“I’ve got you,” he said softly, gently carrying Maxx away from all the fire. “It’s gonna be okay.”

He glanced back at the scene on the other side of the storage house. Three of the men were lying motionless on the ground, bleeding out. One of the remaining humans had a large axe in his hands and was holding it against Cody’s throat. The other had drawn a gun and was raising it to aim at Awsten.

“That was a dirty trick you did, earlier,” Awsten said. “Setting up a trap like that.” The human fired and just barely missed Awsten. 

“If it works, it works,” the human said. “Never fails to catch you bloodthirsty abominations.” Moving fast, he grabbed a knife from his side and threw it at Awsten. Awsten hit it aside with his sword. 

“I never seen a blade like that before,” the human said, eyes narrowing. “What kinda vampire are you?”

Awsten smirked. “The kind that’s gonna kill you.”

“Not if you want this one to live,” the other human threatened. “Drop your sword, vampire.”

“And you two, don’t move,” the human with the gun said, pointing it at Zach and Maxx. Zach froze. Maxx was unconscious in his arms. 

“I think he’ll live anyway,” Awsten said.

“You sure about that?” the human with the axe swung it towards Cody’s heart.

Awsten ran towards the two humans. The one with the gun shot again, but Awsten was on him fast, slashing at him with the sword. Awsten didn’t stop there, rushing to the other human and running him through with the sword.

Zach hurried over, still carrying Maxx. The human on Awsten’s sword dropped his axe. He was choking on his blood.

“Too late,” he said with a bloody grin. “He’s not gonna survive what I did to him. Death… to all… vampires…”

“It’s not too late,” Awsten said, shoving the human’s body aside. He placed a hand against Cody’s bleeding chest. A soft pink glow engulfed his hand and spread to Cody’s chest. The wound stitched itself back together. And Zach breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Cody open his eyes. 

“That was way too close,” Cody said. “Fuck, I think we gotta move again.”

Awsten leaned against one side of Cody’s pillar as Zach reached out to break Cody’s chains. Cody stumbled a bit, but he was on his feet. 

“I don’t wanna move…” Awsten said. “Can’t we just, I don’t know, hunt them before they hunt us?”

“Wouldn’t that make us the bad guys?” Cody said.

“I don’t think so,” Zach said. “We’re just trying to live our lives. Makes sense to try and stop people like them before they hurt anyone else. Other vampires might not be as lucky as us.”

“See!” Awsten said excitedly. “Zach’s on my side! By the way, Zach, nice sneaking in all quiet. Kind of late, though.”

“I’m not— look, I was looking for you!” Zach said. He hefted Maxx higher in his arms. “It’s a big city… and also it was really sunny today and I didn’t know…” Guilt struck him as he watched Cody walk unsteadily towards the door of the storage house. 

They were being tortured for hours… and he didn’t know. 

“Next time, we all stick together,” he said, holding Maxx tightly against his chest. Awsten and Cody both nodded. They both came over, putting their arms around Zach and Maxx. They all held each other for a moment. Zach shut his eyes.

He was so glad they were all okay…

“Okay, all that kinda made me thirsty for so much blood, so I need to head out,” Awsten announced, effectively ending the moment.

“Fuck, I need some too,” Cody said. “They threw so much holy water at me, I feel like shit.”

“You look like shit,” Awsten said.

“The only reason you _don’t_ look like shit is because your weakness is the dumbest thing ever!” Cody retorted. “Garlic? Really? What kind of weakness is garlic?”

“It sucks! I can’t eat it!” Awsten yelled back. “It smells so good, but I know it’ll kill me!”

Zach laughed, following after the two of them. As they stepped out into the cool, dark night, Maxx finally stirred in his arms. He blinked and stared up at Zach. In front of them, Cody and Awsten continued to bicker about garlic and blood. 

“Oh my god,” Maxx croaked, throwing his arms around Zach’s shoulders. “Zach, you saved my life! I love you!”

“I love you too,” Zach said. “You alright?”

“Uh,” Maxx said. He looked like he was thinking for a moment, and then he suddenly turned into a bat. He flapped his little wings and promptly started tumbling towards the ground. Zach grabbed him before he could fall. 

“Alright, that’s enough of an answer,” Zach said, putting Bat-Maxx on his shoulder. “You rest there until you feel better.”

Maxx patted Zach’s shoulder with his wings and then rested his little bat head against the fabric of Zach’s coat.

Awsten turned around and started walking backwards. He stopped talking for a moment to squint at Zach. “Oh, Maxx is awake,” he announced.

“Hey, Maxx, you want anything?” Cody said. “After me and Awsten get our blood, anyway.”

Maxx squeaked at them. Zach reached up to pet him affectionately. 

“You guys get your blood first,” Zach said. “We’ll get him something when he’s a bit more alert. I’ll keep an eye on him.” 

It was dark, it was chilly, and it was a beautiful night for the four vampires who had just had a close brush with danger. The city was full of life and hundreds of thousands of humans. And five less vampire hunters. Zach smiled and kept a protective hand over Maxx as he followed Awsten and Cody into the lamp-lit streets, looking for fresh blood.

**Author's Note:**

> Zach: Night Vampire: weakness to sunlight, gets power from darkness, has abilities of heightened strength and walking through walls  
> Cody: Unholy Blood Vampire: weakness to holy water and holy objects, gets power from blood, has abilities of telekinesis and mind control  
> Awsten: Holy Blood Vampire: weakness to garlic, gets power from blood, has abilities of magic healing and summoning a sword  
> Maxx: Shadow Vampire: weakness to fire, gets power from the cold, has ability of transforming into a bat, cat, or snake


End file.
